Liminal Minimals - June 2012

Liminal Minimals – June 2012

0 Comments 29 June 2012

As June fades to grey we bring you some short reviews of albums that have enlightened the Liminal space over the past month. Reviews by Joseph Burnett (JB) and Rich Hughes (RH).

Chord – Gmaj7 (MIE Music)

Deep drone is not an easy style to excel at. After all, Pauline Oliveros and Eliane Radigue have covered just about every base, whilst the current drone fave du jour, Eleh, is experiencing a bit of a backlash since his (and it is a “he”) much-celebrated Location Momentum album. Essentially, the problem is that deep drone can either seem a bit self-indulgent or, more worryingly, a boring waste of a side of vinyl. If you don’t have a particular theme or theoretical concept behind it (see Johannes Welsch’s latest gong-based gem), it can seem rather vague. Chicago drone collective Chord have circumvented these hazards most expertly, in my opinion, by centring the two pieces of this album on a single chord, Gmaj7, interpreted in two distinct ways. “Stasis”, as its title suggests, is the deepest of the two, a slowly-evolving single tone on which the group stretch the harmonic possibility of Gmaj7 in patient stages before gradually injecting bristles of jarring noise. The single chord becomes a broad palette into which the listener is immersed, all stylistic deviations perceived almost subconsciously as the mind is subsumed by the foundational central drone. In contrast, “Kinesis” is practically busy, with guitars, gongs and drums repeating the monochord pattern on Gmaj7 in an ever progressing loop, the group’s use of rock instrumentation and feedback nudging them towards the kind of drone territory more commonly associated with metal acts like SUNN O))) and Boris. Gmaj7 is a fascinating exploration of the possibilities of a single chord. (JB)

Mark Fosson – Digging In The Dust (Tompkins Square)

Another month and another great release from Tompkins Square, this time uncovering the demos for a “lost” album: Mark Fosson’s one LP for John Fahey’s Takoma Records in ’76. That album itself wasn’t released until 2006 due to Takoma folding after running out of money. Digging In The Dust: Home Recordings 1976 are demos for that original album, many of which would later appear on that album in subtly re-worked forms. The songs were written not that long after Fosson acquired his 12-string guitar, and that raw and simple charm is what stands out most from this record. There’s no wonder Fahey signed Fosson as there are striking similarities in their sound and approach. But it’s the influence of Fosson’s native Kentucky that hangs large. The songs invoke images of green pastures and wild, sprawling landscapes – the demo nature of the tracks adding a certain rustic charm to them. Sometimes collections of demos fail to add to the original recordings. In this case, however, they allow you to delve deeper into the mind of a great lost songwriter. (RH)

Panabrite – Illumination (Under The Spire)

Panabrite, aka Norm Chambers, has been busy of late, dropping three long players on the world in 2012 already. Illumination was originally released on a very limited run of 85 cassettes at the end of 2011, and now gets a full LP reissue on Under The Spire. In contrast to the Digitalis release, Soft Terminal back in March, this is a much more restrained and softer series of electronic explorations. It’s only Chambers’s analog synthesisers that get used here, lightly embellished with a range of suitably spectral effects. But don’t confuse this lightness of touch with lack of imagination. This is a strongly ambient work, allowing the listener to lose themselves in each faint ripple of music. Each piece of music features a laid back flow of wave after wave of shimmering electronics that aim for the heavens. The album is over all too quickly though, but, as it comes to an end with the pretty undulations of ‘Horizon Cycles’ you’re left calmed, at ease and reaching instantly for the play button again just so you can escape, hoping this time it might just be permanent. (RH)

Peaking Lights – Lucifer (Weird World)

It seems a bit facile to decry, as some have, Peaking Lights for being a pair of silly hippies. In fairness, the married duo’s starry-eyed cuteness is bound to rile the cynics out there, but, considering they caused many positive waves with a not-too-dissimilar debut, 936, last year, it does seem unfair. In fact, where 936 succeeded mostly in simply ticking the required Not Not Fun boxes to get critical praise, Lucifer sees Indra Dunis and Aaron Coyes expanding their scope of influences, starting with opener “Moonrise”, with its overt nods to the crystalline minimalism of Steve Reich and Terry Riley, which they carry into “Beautiful Son”, with glistening sequencer loops supporting Dunis’ dreamy vocals almost in lieu of Peaking Lights’ trademark thumping bass. Obviously, the inane lyrics on “Beautiful Son” (the couple have just become parents) will only fuel the disdain of some critics, but as the album progresses, they bring in the elements that made 936 so popular (heavy bass, jangly guitar progressions, woozy synths, dreamlike vocals), whilst also freeing up their sound by keeping each component as minimal as possible. The result is indeed a bright and breezy album, with very little in terms of gravitas, but it’s also well-crafted, engaging and pierced by sunshine. Given the terrible Spring and Summer we’ve been having in Blighty, that’s hardly a bad thing. (JB)

Seaworthy – Bellows and Breath (Preservation)

Taking a break from his usual guitar-led compositions, Cameron Webb, under his guise of Seaworthy, has crafted a work of beauty with Bellows And Breath, part of Preservation Records limited edition CD series called Circa. The music is largely based around harmonium, melodica and found sounds, weaving together a thick blanket of sounds that, at times, feel impossible to escape. The music becomes almost tactile, the texture of the noise so close you can almost touch it. There’s a definite link to the sea at times, the harmonium giving that unmistakable sea-shanty feel to tracks like ‘Breathe Deep’, but there’s also an exploration of the meeting of the sea and land – as though you’re sitting on a series of dunes, the grass moving in your hand and the faint whiff of the ocean on the breeze. Much can be made of the transporting powers of music and with Bellows and Breath, Webb has succeeded in moving me to some of the finest places in both my memory and imagination. (RH)

Sleep – Dopesmoker (Southern Lord)

I may be wrong, but I think Dopesmoker (initially known as Jerusalem) was the first metal album to be composed of a solitary, implacable, track. And what a track! In this respect, Dopesmoker owed almost as much to the single-minded discipline of Tony Conrad as it did to the heavy metal brutality of Black Sabbath or Randy Holden, even if it would appear Sleep weren’t too aware of it at the time. “Dopesmoker” is a track that slowly, even imperceptibly (especially if you’re on the right stuff), extracts the listener from his or her immediate surroundings, to place him or her in a whirlwind of relentless metal, one that builds bridges between the low-end growl of sludge and the expansive menace of doom, with a dash of fuzzy psychedelica for good measure. Yet all the while the trio of Al Cisneros (bass, vocals), Chris Hakius (drums) and Matt Pike (guitar) never fail to lose sight of the track’s central melody, meaning that for all its moody, earthquake-like rhythm, grumbled vocals and overdriven guitar, and for all that the track extends and distorts time, “Dopesmoker” remains, above all, a phenomenal slab of impeccable metal bliss. This reissue from Southern Lord doesn’t add much to the original, bar from some lush new artwork and the essential fact that Greg Anderson and his team have made this essential album available to the wider public again. For that, I raise a horned salute! (JB)